Now that the dust has settled on the 2014 midterm elections, we can take a step back and look at how public lands and conservation played in two of the West’s most politically important states: Colorado and Montana. These two states tilt between red and blue in statewide elections, and the attachment that their voters have to the outdoors only serves to heighten the importance of Western lands as a campaign issue.
The bottom line from last Tuesday’s election is that conservation and support for public lands were winning issues, even if they didn’t always decide races. We can see this demonstrated in four key races — Mark Udall v. Cory Gardner for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat, John Hickenlooper v. Bob Beauprez for Colorado governor, Steve Daines v. Amanda Curtis for Montana’s U.S. Senate seat, and Ryan Zinke v. John Lewis for Montana’s at-large U.S. House seat.
How lands and conservation played out in these races offers good lessons for Inside-the-Beltway campaign types, who may not understand the nuances or importance of public lands issues out West.
Colorado
In the governor’s race, John Hickenlooper (D) managed to hold onto his seat against Republican challenger Bob Beauprez in a tough year for Democrats nationally. In somewhat of a surprising twist, public lands issues came up during the first debate, when it was revealed that Beauprez supported a right-wing, fringe movement to give away Colorado’s national public lands to the state for development. Beauprez stated that he believed national public lands in the state were “supposed to be Colorado’s.” Governor Hickenlooper challenged Beauprez’ position, questioning how the state would afford the new costs of such an action.
The interaction– dubbed a “flashpoint” in the debate— led to dueling op-eds and an editorial in the Denver Post against Beauprez’s “impractical and hopeless quest.” In the end, this issue was part of what led Beauprez away from the electable center in this race and left the door open for Hickenlooper to win. As governor, Hickenlooper has sometimes riled environmentalists with his staunch support of oil and gas development, but on lands issues he has spoken up about the importance of protecting treasured outdoor spaces like the Thompson Divide area.
In Colorado’s competitive Senate race, public lands issues played out differently. Whereas Beauprez and Hickenlooper each took (contrasting) positions on the importance of national public lands, Mark Udall’s (D) attempts to goad challenger Cory Gardner (R) onto the record about public lands went unheeded. Udall asked Garder in a debate, “Why would you sell off public lands?” Gardner, seeming to recognize how Coloradans value national public lands like monuments and forests, would not take the bait, instead responding that “we have great resources in Colorado” and “I am excited to represent a state that has so many opportunities based on our recreational and environmental economy.”
As a U.S. Senator, it remains to be seen if Gardner will continue to heed the voters who put him into office and be a champion for public lands and conservation in Congress.
Montana
As was evidenced in the 2012 race for U.S. Senate, conservation is a wedge issue for Montana voters. In that election, Jon Tester (D) held off challenger Denny Rehberg (R) by making Rehberg’s stances on public lands, conservation, and sportsmen’s issues a central feature of his campaign.
From the beginning of this year’s Senate race, Democrats tried to get Republican Steve Daines on the record against public lands and conservation. One-time candidate John Walsh was beginning to gain traction by calling on his opponent to do more to protect public lands. And after Amanda Curtis replaced Senator Walsh– who was forced out of the race– she continued questioning Daines’ support for national public lands in Montana.
But Daines, perhaps learning from failed candidate Denny Rehberg, used public lands issues to his advantage. For example, his campaign released ads touting his support of land conservation and sportsmen’s issues and stating that he “will not support any proposals that would reduce Montanans’ access to our public lands, nor will I support efforts that result in the sale of public lands that Montanans so greatly value.”
A similar pattern played out in the race for Montana’s at-large U.S. House seat. Democratic candidate John Lewis unleashed a full-throttled attack on Ryan Zinke (R) running ads that used the song “This Land is Your Land” to accuse Zinke of wanting to sell them off. But Zinke fought back against these accusations, arguing for national public lands by saying, “I’m not the guy that wants to sell land, I’m the guy that wants to manage it better.”
In the end, with high-profile candidates from both political parties giving attention to lands issues in Colorado and Montana, it’s clear that conservation remains an extremely important issue for voters in the West. Election observers interested in how to win the West would do well to take note as we head towards the 2016 election cycle. And, those going to Congress in 2015 should be long-lasting champions of our public lands, not just on the campaign trail.